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It’s A Wonderful Life meets New Deal or Raw Deal? in this personal and social history of the New Deal from a conservative point of view, detailing the effects on the economy, culture, and the people of small American town from longtime Wall Street Journal editor George Melloan.

When the New Deal Came to Town is a snapshot of a time and place: Whiteland, Indiana during the Great Depression, one of the most fraught eras in American history.

Imagine yourself transported back in time to April of 1933 and deposited in a small American town, when a young boy named George Melloan moved with his family to this quiet hamlet during the middle of the worst economic period in American history. Part social history, part personal observations, When the New Deal Came to Town provides a keen eyewitness account of how the Depression affected everyday lives and applies those experiences to the larger arena of American politics.

Written with Melloan’s signature “clarity and polemical skill” (The Washington Times), this is a fascinating narrative history that provides new insight into the Great Depression for a new generation.